Day 30
Living with Daily Expectation
This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it! [Psalm 118:24]
This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it! [Psalm 118:24]
Because I was raised by Swiss parents in a Silicon Valley suburb I enjoyed many European holiday traditions that, at least in my childhood, were unfamiliar to my American friends. One of my favorites: Advent calendars! Each day in December I would anticipate opening another little door. At first I’d look forward to simply seeing a new picture; eventually advent calendars hid chocolates or even little toys! It spread out the Christmas joy; the thrill of opening a present touched every day, not just December 25th.
That’s a lot like living with biblical hope! It fills you with expectation, not just of the ultimate Day when all your hopes will be fulfilled, but of the way God will work each day until then.
Try this experiment: As soon you wake up each day for the rest of the Hope Experience, say to yourself, “This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it!” I’ve been trying this for a few months and it has really changed my outlook; it reminds me each day is sort of like a little advent calendar door, with something God wants me to experience inside — an opportunity to serve, to grow, to laugh. I can miss it if I’m not looking.
Yet advent calendars simply wouldn’t work without the big double doors labeled “December 25.” Anticipating that day was exactly what made the other, smaller advent doors so magical for me as a kid. Again, much like biblical hope. That daily sense of expectation is made more wondrous as you anticipate the Great Day — the day of your resurrection and God’s glorious re-creation of the heavens and earth. You want to spread not just Christmas cheer, but “resurrection cheer.”
C. S. Lewis pointed out this link:
Hope means a continual looking forward to the eternal world. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next… It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’; aim at earth and you will get neither.
Question to Consider
How can I remind myself to live each day in hopeful expectation?
Prayer
Lord, I choose to rejoice in this day. I know there will be “advent calendar doors” for me to open today, that You place in my life. Help me live with a daily hopefulness and expectation.
